Are men and women held to a different standard when disciplining a child?

You be the judge…

Judge admonishes Mom for spanking daughter

(Newser)                                                                 –                                                                A mother in Texas who got arrested after spanking her toddler received five years’ probation and a stern lecture from the judge this week, reports KZTV. “You don’t spank children today,” District Court Judge Jose Longoria told Rosalina Gonzales. “In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?” Gonzales, who also must attend parenting classes in Corpus Christi and pay a $50 fine to a children’s center, responded, “Yes, sir.”

Police arrested her on charges of causing injury to a child in December, after the almost-2-year-old girl’s grandmother notice red marks on her rear and took her to a hospital to be checked out. Prosecutors described it as “pretty simple, straightforward spanking case,” reports WVLT-TV. Gonzales has lost custody of the girl and her two other children, though it’s not clear whether the spanking charges figured into that.

Hawaii:  Court allows ‘parental discipline’ defense

The State Supreme Court ruled 3 to 2 that a man convicted of punching his stepson should have been allowed to raise parental discipline as a defense. The decision allows for Cedric Kikuta to be retried because the trial judge refused to allow jurors to consider the defense that he was disciplining the 14-year-old boy. The trial judge had rejected the defense because the boy’s nose was broken by Mr. Kikuta, who wanted him to clean a carpet stain.       

Canadian Supreme Court rules consent cannot be given when unconscious (duh!)

It’s a sad state of affairs when you need a Supreme Court to tell you an unconscious person can’t give consent!

No consent in unconscious sex case: Supreme Court

A woman cannot give advance consent to sexual activity while unconscious, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

The decision restores the conviction of an Ottawa man who regularly practised consensual erotic asphyxiation with his longtime girlfriend.

The case goes back to a particular episode in 2007 when the woman, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, complained to police about what her partner did to her after she passed out. At trial, the man was found guilty of sexual assault but his conviction was overturned on appeal.

On Friday, in a 6-3 decision, the country’s top court restored the conviction. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said consent ends once someone is unconscious or asleep.

“If the complainant is unconscious during the sexual activity, she has no real way of knowing what happened and whether her partner exceeded the bounds of her consent,” the ruling said.

Here’s a dissenting viewpoint:

“The approach advocated by the Chief Justice would also result in the criminalization of a broad range of conduct that Parliament cannot have intended to capture in its definition of the offense of sexual assault. Notably, it would criminalize kissing or caressing a sleeping partner, however gently and affectionately.”

Sounds like they’re protecting male entitlement. I hardly doubt any rational woman would run to court to press charges against her partner for kissing or caressing her. And if a person is not suppose to be kissing, caressing, or anything else- well, it should be a human right to seek protection from somebody doing something against our will.

Press Release: Historic US Supreme Court Case

May 5, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONFERENCE May 6th, 2011 at 12 Noon
Location:  US Supreme Court One First Street, NE Washington, DC 20543                                                                                             
Sidewalk in front of the US Supreme Court
                             
                 HISTORIC US SUPREME COURT CASE
Child Advocates and Legal Scholars are anxiously awaiting the filing of a
Petition for Writ of Certiorari on May 6, 2011 at 12 noon at the US Supreme
Court in Washington, D.C. in the Sacks v. Sacks case.

This truly will be an  Historic Day at the US Supreme Court, for  America’s
children and their “Protective Parents”, as this landmark case is being hand
delivered by a Florida Mother and exposes a national crisis all over the US.

The Sacks v. Sacks case is the perfect opportunity for the US Supreme Court to
thoroughly explore and address the issue of Battered Mothers and child abuse,
and their documented evidence of “protective parents” losing custody  and the
failure of family courts and Child Protective Services to thoroughly investigate
and handle Domestic Violence, child sexual/and or child physical abuse cases
properly, therefore resulting in a verdict, contrary to the “bests interests of
the child(ren)”.

Kathleen Russell, from the Center for Judicial Excellence, in the California
Progress Report, on 10/19/09 “When Family Courts Get It Wrong”, says “When a
parent harms his or her own child, family courts are supposed to step in and
safeguard the victim. Can you imagine what a tragedy it would be if courts
awarded custody to the wrong parent Actually according to one conservative
estimate, more than 58, 000 children a year are court ordered by family courts
into unsupervised visitation contact with physically or sexually abusive parents
following a divorce in the U.S. The fact that this type of scandal is taking
place in the American justice system defies the imagination. Not since the Roman
Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the US seen this type of institutional
harm inflicted on innocent children.” (www.centerforjudicalexcelllence.org)

The National Organization for Women, NOW and the NOW Ad Hoc Law Committee
are  addressing this issue and in their Spring 2011,  “and explore what can
happen to  a protective mother and her children when she does nothing more than
to protect her children”, as quoted on page 36 of the Petition for Certiorari.

The Petitioner, in the US Supreme Court case, Linda Marie Sacks, has been chosen
as the “Poster Mother” of the Family Court Crisis, is interviewed for the
article.(www.now.org) Click on the Family Law Spring Newsletter.
On April 21, 2011,  in the BMCCVI Digest Number 2011, reports that Eileen King
representing Justice for Children participated in the Office of Violence Against
Women Roundtable Discussion that took place at George Washington University Law
School. The Roundtable was organized by Rita Smith, the Director of the National
Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Prof. Joan Meier, Director of the
Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DVLEAP) at GWU Law
School. OVW will post a report about the Roundtable on their website in the near
future. (www.justiceforchildren.org) and (www.dvleap.org)

As noted by Barry Goldstein, Esq. The Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) is
part of the US Justice Department that provides grants for programs to reduce
and prevent domestic violence. They recently sponsored a forum for their staff
and other professionals in various parts of the government to learn about the
crisis in the custody court system.

 “It was a discussion based upon current scientific research and actual
experiences that courts are routinely making catastrophic mistakes in failing to
protect children and domestic violence survivors.

Linda Marie Sacks, a Florida Mother, truly the “All American Mom”, has only seen
her children at the Family Tree House Visitation Center for  82 hours in the
last 4 years and 2 months, is challenging the “Best Interests of The Children”
Statute 61.13,  as Domestic Violence, child sexual and physical abuse must be
considered in a judge’s decision determining the “Best Interests of the
Children”. In the Pro se Cert  Petition, Sacks raises  the constitutional
implications of a fit parent to the care, custody, of her children, and without
a finding of unfitness by clear and convincing evidence, established by the US
Supreme Court ruling in Santosky v. Kramer, U.S. 745, 769-770 (1982).

Her daughters said in April 2007, “Mommy fight for us and do something every day
to get us back and don’t ever stop”. Their Mother not only kept her promise to
them, but nowisa national spokesperson on the child custody crisis, and is
speaking up for her children, and all of America’s children affected by the
failure of our justice system to protect our most innocent children from sexual
and physical abuse. She is a formidable legal opponent, as she has been self
taught, going to “Internet Law School” to continue her legal challenge after
spending $140,000 to undo an unjust custody decision. The Fifth District Court
of Appeals REVERSED and REMANDED the issue of child custody back to the lower
court  for a violation of the Petitioners constitutional rights to due process,
in 08/08. This rare reversal provided no relief as the lower court of Judge
Shawn L. Briese refused to abide by the Appeals court and refused to protect the
children and said one child lied about being sexually abused.

In an article by John Weiss, from Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN , “Do children
lie about sexual abuse? Not Usually.” Children do lie, but seldom about being
abused. “All human beings can and do lie, but it’s hard for kids to do it about
sex”, said Victor Vieth, the director of the national Child Protection Training
Center at Winona State University. “They can’t lie about something they have no
knowledge of” he said, and children don’t learn about oral sex from Sesame
Street.

Dr. Deborah Day of Psychological Affiliates, the court ordered custody evaluator
said the minor child at 8 years old had pediatric bipolar and that negates any
child sexual abuse, and then  thwarted the DCF investigation. The court record
clearly showed that the child DID NOT have bipolar, but  the trial court still
refused to protect the children, which is typical from cases all over the US.
 
One day justice will prevail for America’s children. Could it be in the Sacks v.
Sacks case?
 
 National Advocacy groups and Mothers will be attending events to shed light on
this crisis in America’s Courts.
Mothers Day, May 8th, 2011  in Washington DC will also have the Mothers of Lost
Children from 6-9:30 PM at the White House. 

6:00-9:30 p.m.
6:00 pm speak out
7:00 pm march
7:45 Candlelight vigil
Information will be available on Sunday night about activities onMonday.
And another group will be having the:
 
Million Mom March Mother’s Day 2011 in Washington DC
Feb 152011
 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Mom-March-Mothers-Day-2011-in-Washington-DC/153380204718360?sk=info

CONTACT:
http://americanmotherspoliticalparty.org/
 

For more information and press
Please contact:
Kathleen Russell 
Executive Director
Center for Judicial Excellence
495 Miller Avenue, Suite 304
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Main 415.388.9600 Fax 415.388.4610
 
http://www.CenterforJudicialExcellence.org

Blaming the victim

Here’s a prime example of blaming the victim. In this case, a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence is blamed for child abuse (exposure to violence committed by her husband). In this case, the perpetrator, the husband, is responsible for the abuse committed by his actions on his wife and the indirect actions of this violence to his child. She is not responsible for his actions. She is a victim. Estimates place child exposure to domestic violence at 3-8 million. Society will not hold mothers (or fathers, as the case may  be) responsible for another person’s behavior.  If she can barely keep him from beating her, how can she be expected to protect her child? Furthermore, why is he not charged with child abuse when he’s hitting the mother – isn’t it the same idea as this case? Clearly, it’s a double standard and blaming the victim mentality to charge a victim of violence, and not the perpetrator of violence, with child abuse.

Supreme Court:  Agency had no authority to place woman on child abuser list